List of Famous people who died in 2004

Michael Andreas Mellinger was a German actor in film, television, theatre and radio. He was best known for his appearances on the West End and supporting role in the film Goldfinger (1964).

John J. Barton served one term as mayor of Indianapolis. During his time in office, plans were made for the construction of the Indiana Convention Center. He was defeated for re-election by Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners member and future United States Senator Richard Lugar in 1967.

James Richard Cantalupo was an American businessman. He served as chairman and chief executive officer of McDonald's Corporation until his sudden death by heart attack at the age of 60.

John Maynard Smith was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the well-known biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution with George R. Price, and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory.

Jeremy Allen Black, BA, BPhil, MA, DPhil was a British Assyriologist and Sumerologist, founder of the online Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.

James Joseph "Jimmy" Ling was an American businessman and former head of Ling-Temco-Vought corporation. While at its helm, Ling used LTV funds to purchase a large number of corporations, and was one of the more famous of the 1960s conglomerate managers. As with other conglomerates such as ITT, Litton Industries, Teledyne, and Textron, higher interest rates and inflation destroyed LTV in the 1970s.

James Hunter Blair was a noted Scottish historic preservationist, landowner and forester. His family's 2,000-acre (8.1 km²) estate, Blairquhan, is located near Straiton in South Ayrshire, Scotland.

William Boyett was an American actor best known for his work as the low-key but authoritative Sergeant William 'Mac' MacDonald on the police drama Adam-12.